Cleric clears air over Saudi religious freedom

**4me2** · 24th September 2004

Cleric clears air over Saudi religious freedom

Non-Muslims are not harassed, insists religious police chief, but cannot practise their faith openly RIYADH - Saudi Arabia does not prevent non-Muslims from practising their religion but will never allow public displays of their faith, a senior Saudi cleric and head of the powerful religious police has said.

Sheik Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Ghaith said the religious police, known formally as the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, do not detain or punish non-Muslims for practising their religion.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=500 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top> But while they do not harass or force non-Muslims to convert, 'we will not allow them to publicly practise their religion in this country', he said.

Although there was no specific mention, his comments appeared to be a response to a US State Department report that accused Saudi Arabia, a key America ally, of 'particularly severe violations' of religious freedom.

The State Department included the kingdom for the first time on a list of countries that could be subject to US sanctions because of religious intolerance.

Sheik Al-Ghaith holds the rank of a minister and his remarks, published in the Okaz daily on Sunday, were the first by a senior Saudi official on the US report.

The religious police are charged with ensuring that women are covered in black robes outside their homes, that the sexes do not mix in public, that shops close five times a day for prayers and that men go to mosques for prayers.

'If we discover places where un-Islamic rituals are taking place, we report that to the concerned authorities. We don't arrest or punish anyone,' Sheik Al-Ghaith said.

In its report on Saudi Arabia, the State Department said: 'Freedom of religion does not exist.'

Those who do not adhere to the officially sanctioned strain of Sunni Islam practised in the country can face 'severe repercussions' from religious police, said the report, which was issued on Wednesday and covered religious freedom in 191 countries.

It also cited instances where government-paid mosque preachers 'used violent anti-Jewish and anti-Christian language in their sermons'.

Sheik Hassan al-Saffar, one of Saudi Arabia's prominent Shi'ite clerics, said the kingdom's two million Shi'ites rejected the State Department's 'meddling' in their affairs.

Shi'ites, a Muslim religious minority shunned in the kingdom by conservative clerics as a renegade group, have become more outspoken recently about limits on freedom of worship and poor representation in government posts.

But many of them have maintained they will deal with their grievances within a national dialogue with their government.

The State Department report said Shi'ites in the country continued to face political and economic discrimination.

This included limited job opportunities and little representation in official institutions as well as restrictions on the practice of their faith and on the building of mosques and community centres.

Sheik Al-Saffar said in a statement on Sunday: 'It is important for me to reaffirm that Shi'ite citizens in the kingdom reject foreign meddling in their country's affairs.

'They are an inseparable part of their nation and reject that their name be used for pressure or blackmail by any authority.'

He said the Americans had no right to speak of religious freedom violations or human rights.

'They are sponsoring and supporting the worst practices of killing and destruction carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people,' he said.

He also lambasted the 'continued American occupation in Iraq' which he said led to the spread of violence and fear there.

Sheik Al-Saffar, a former dissident who returned to the kingdom in 1995 after 15 years in exile, said Shi'ites, like any other group in Saudi Arabia, 'deal with their government to solve their problems'. -- AP

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